As the stomach turns (continued)

The soap opera also known as the Boston Red Sox continues. Yesterday, they named Jed Hoyer (who's kinda cute!) and Ben Cherington as co-General Managers. What fascinates me is that it seems to take two guys to do the same job Theo did. But wait - if you read how Larry Lucchino describes their responsibilities, it seems like they're going to continue doing the jobs they're already doing -

[Hoyer] will handle major league issues, including player contracts, negotiations, and trades. Cherington, the 31-year-old former director of player development, will be charged with his area of expertise, minor league issues.

So who's going to do the GM's job? Will LL be the "man behind the curtain"? Hmm. LL then said that no details would be released on the length of their contracts or pay packages. And further intrigue when LL was asked about Theo -

''All we're saying is we'll keep the light on in the window, the door ajar, and if there's a fit, we'd like to see it happen."

[Is this a major league ballclub or Motel 6??]

I love the guys on the "Surviving Grady" blog site. I think Denton said it best today:

We don't have a center fielder, our left fielder wants out, no shortstop or legitimate first baseman, but we now have two GM's! Swell. ..At this point, I don't really care. Get me a shortstop with less errors than Dennis Rodman has STD's. Get me a centerfielder that doesn't have to run in and hand the ball to the cutoff man. How about a first baseman while you're at it?...This is baseball, not politics. Get us baseball players, not GM's.

Amen.

In one other interesting note, Edgar Renteria was introduced to the Atlanta press yesterday. He admitted to having a bit of a hard time with the booing in Boston, and also (finally) admitted "that he dealt with back and leg injuries this season, which he said limited him to ''50 to 60 percent" at times, though he didn't say how much of the season he spent coping with those injuries." But my favorite line was that his 30 errors were really the fault of the Fenway infield -

''The ball bounces too much in the field of the shortstop, where I play," he said. ''The field is not good like other stadiums. One day it's bad, the next day, it's worse . . . I was uncomfortable the whole year."

Okay. Right. Whatever. How does he explain that 1/2 those errors (15) took place when the Sox were on the road - in other words, away from Fenway?

Finally, I want to point out a great editorial by William Raspberry in yesterday's Washington Post. He discusses his upcoming retirement, and about how he has to find another "space" to make his own. He says we all have three spaces - work, home and some other place, "those informal gathering spots where one finds not just escape but camaraderie, conversation, friendly argument and pleasant conversation with regulars." He laments that most of those places seem to have been lost. But I think they exist now in cyberspace. I have made a ton of "friends" through my RS message boards and chat rooms, people I can have those pleasant conversations with about our shared passion for baseball and the Sox. Maybe these are the third places of the future?